Adentures in Low Tide
by Katchia
Summary: Written for the prompt "Harry and Luna get bored of Hogwarts and run away to the sea". I veered very off course, however.


Harry sat on the front steps outside of Hogwarts. The huge doors were open behind him, strains of The Weird Sisters' hit song 'Do the Hippogriff' wafting over his head. Snow was heaped up in melting piles about three feet from the bottom step, and Harry was charming snowballs to leap into the air and hit one of the many statues that scattered the outer walls.

Harry was also sulking. Because no matter how many times he tried, he could never get expelled. Dumbledore especially seemed to think that all of the trouble Harry caused was "for the best" and never seemed to think of it as a problem. Even though Harry was the cause of the third east hallway and staircase collapse.

So now, Harry was out in the snow, expelling himself from another blasted party, throwing snowballs at the walls. He raised his wand, ready to propel more unassuming hunks of frozen water at the stern face of some wizard or other, when a voice spoke in his ear.

"Hullo, Harry."

Harry dropped his wand, which went rolling into a rather mushy snow bank to his right. Luna Lovegood blinked, seated beside him with her feet tucked underneath her.

"You've dropped your wand."

Harry's wand, slightly damp, swooped in and settled at his feet.

"Oh, er, thanks, Luna. What are you doing out here?"

"I thought I would join you in gazing at the moon, since it seems to be so very large tonight."

She tilted her head back, and Harry followed her gaze.

"Were you not invited to the party?"

Harry looked back down. "I was, but I got bored."

"Parties can be very dull." She traced something in the sky with her finger.

Sighing, Harry picked his wand up and slid it into a pocket in his robes. "Have you noticed that however much trouble I get into, I never get expelled? It's all empty threats. I bet I could get away with anything, and the most I would get would be detention for a year."

"It is terribly trying to be a poster child, isn't it?"

It was Harry's turn to stop and blink. He'd never thought of it that way.

"My father said once, when we were traveling across France in search of the legendary Big-Horned giant octopus, that as a running paper we had to keep our appearances up. Aren't you the Chosen One, Harry?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Perhaps the school needs someone who they can _prove _is the best, no matter what anyone else says."

"That's" Harry shook his head. "That's brilliant."

Luna smiled and tilted her head. "Although it might be Vernus Oscopellus."

Harry thought through of the years of Charms, History, and Potions.

"What's Vernus Oxo-osco-"

"Vernus Oscopellus is a very rare disease that inhabits the minds of adults in the spring and makes them exceptionally nice to everyone, whether they want to or not."

Harry thought of Snape.

"I don't think they all have that, Luna."

"Lord Voldemort could be ensuring your stay at Hogwarts to train you into a worthy opponent when your time comes to duel."

Harry thought of Snape.

"Yeah, maybe."

"Shall we test this hypothesis?"

"What? Oh-" Harry had turned to the door, hearing the music stop. There was a loud whooping, and then a lot of cheering, before the music started again, louder this time as a giggling couple escaped through the doors. Harry and Luna watched them as they walked quickly down the steps and out into the garden.

Turning to Luna, Harry asked. "How?

"What are we doing, again?"

Luna sat next to Harry on the pier, swinging her legs over the side.

"You are going to help me make a peace treaty with the evil pixies, and I-"

"You are going to help me break into the school from the underwater pipes, yeah. But hang on: Evil pixies? Aren't Evil Pixies, y'know, evil?"

"Yes, Harry, and the Minister of Magic wants to evict them from their homes in The Great Lake." She spread her hands, indicating the immense span of water they sat over. "I believe we can encourage them to retract their armies and recall the war and make peace, so-"

"Armies?"

"They usually are such peaceful creatures. The impending evacuation must have angered them. They've declared war on us."

Harry's feet skimmed over the water.

"So we're walking-"

"-swimming, rather-"

"-right, swimming; right into the hands of the enemy?"

"Don't think of them as the enemy, Harry, it won't help us convince them."

"Right."

Luna removed her shoes from her feet and removed her wand from behind her ear and held it in her hand. She dove into the water, resurfacing a few feet away.

"Coming?"

Harry threw his robe onto the pier, followed by his shoes and a loud splash.

"So after we turn the army of evil pixies around we'll-"

"Break into the school through the water pipes!"

"Right, yeah...and that'll prove to them-"

"I'm sure it will, Harry."

Splash.

Splash.

Moaning Myrtle hovered above her favorite toilet in the girl's bathroom. Earlier on that evening, someone had tried yanking the cover off her pipe, the one that led to the Great Lake. She'd whooshed down there to fend off any threats, but the current of water she'd caused by whooshing must have scared them off, for all she saw were the usual floating bits of sea grass.

Once the last of the girls had filtered out of the bathroom, taking their bags and their chatter with them, Myrtle abandoned her post and whooshed once again down the pipe into the cooler water of the lake.

She was greeted by two blurry shapes.

She could recognize a ghost when she saw one, better than anyone else, she reckoned. These two were certainly ghosts, and newly formed ones as well.

"What are your names?" She asked them.

"Luna Lovegood." One promptly answered. She was a little more formed than the other – for Myrtle had decided she was, in fact, a she – and had very long, very light hair and robes similar to Myrtle's herself.

"Though now that I've died," She – Luna – continued. "I might no longer be who I was in life."

Myrtle considered this. The other shape had formed now – a boy with messy robes and even messier hair. She recognized him.

"Harry Potter! So you've come to join my toilet, have you?"

The ghost of Harry Potter looked up.

"I s'pose…"

The ghost of Luna – or whomever she was – wafted about for a moment before declaring "I suppose now that I'm dead Rowena Ravenclaw might be more acclimated to answer my questions than before." And she drifted upwards, saying "I doubt my father would mind if I stayed here at Hogwarts…"

Harry, now fully formed, scowled.

"I didn't mean to do that!" He sounded very upset. "Is there any way to un-ghost myself?"

Myrtle gave a large wail and shot herself back up into her toilet.

"Blast." Harry slumped his silvery shoulders, and started a slow ascent back up into Hogwarts. "Sir Nicholas will have my head."

He paused.

Then, chuckling to himself, he burst up through the floor in the great hall, much to his own amusement.

There were screams.

And unsurprisingly, quite a few tears. He always had been loved, after all.


End file.
